Let’s go back to the beginning. How did you two meet?

Volkan: When I was a student at Mersin University in 2003, Nancy gave a talk at the ‘Women Artists Symposium’. We met there and had a great time afterwards. The first project we did together was a video piece about our neighbor downstairs, who believes in reincarnation and thought he was John F. Kennedy in his past life. Later when I moved to Istanbul in 2005, I worked as her assistant for two very productive years.

How did you come up with the idea of 5533?

Nancy: I had the idea for a space like 5533 for a while. First we found a place in Beyoğlu and named it ‘Kalorifer’, but the place flooded and we had to move out. When the 10th Istanbul Biennial’s curator Hou Hanru used İMÇ as an exhibition venue, we realized that we could do something here as well.

Volkan: Nancy even proposed İKSV to use this space for free during the biennial but they didn’t prefer it since they wanted all the action happening on the upper floor. Then we thought of something to do at 5533 during the biennial and asked Adnan Yıldız to work with us. Then he came up with the ‘Grand Family Business’ project. After the project’s success, we knew that 5533 was the perfect place for our initiative.

The recent events occurring in Tophane showed us the importance of neighboring businesses and communal relations. So, how is your relationship with your neighbors?

Nancy: Our relationship with our neighbors used to be very good. We even did an artwork about our neighbors when we first started 5533 and ask for their opinions on the project. Some of them had very positive thoughts about us being here, but for the last three years the businesses constantly change hands. They go bankrupt and leave.

Volkan: It was very fortunate for us to come here after the biennial, because the management of İMÇ and İKSV (İstanbul Culture and Arts Foundation) had already built good relations. Also the people working at the neighboring businesses were used to having biennial visitors. We knew that when the biennial ended, these relationships would end as well, and it worried us a bit. Although they say all that people coming to İMÇ for the biennial was preventing their customers to reach the shops, they were happy with it.

Nancy: Also, after the gallery attacks in Tophane in 2012, they came to us and said that they would never let anything happen like that here and that they would protect us.

I also want to come up with different definitions for art initiatives, through these interviews. So, what does an art initiative mean to you?

Volkan: 5533 is a site-based organization because İMÇ is a very special place with its architecture, mission, with all the lawsuits in the past, the culture and change it brought to Istanbul in the old days. Yes, we are an art initiative but that does not fully describe us.

Nancy: Some artist-led initiatives only show the works of those founding artists and their closer circles. That’s not our mission.

Volkan: When you step outside of 5533, there’s nothing to represent it in its entirety. No artist can solely represent this place, including us. When we go somewhere to present 5533, we only show the photographs of the space.

Nancy: Some artist-run initiatives act as a gallery. We are not like that. We do not acquire anything, we don not sell or show artworks. We only run projects and organize talks for artists.

You also mention on your website that your main mission is to create a space for dialogue between artists. Is that dialogue exclusively between artists?

Volkan: Not really. From social scientists to architects, to researchers everyone is welcomed at 5533 to join this dialogue.

Another thing I admire about 5533 is your ‘guest director’ programme. You give the responsibility of the space to someone else and you step aside. I even didn’t see you here on some of those projects. How did you decide on doing something like this?

Nancy: It happened in a really organic and natural way.

Volkan: Since we both are artists, spending our time on curating or organizing projects is very difficult for us. At the beginning Marcus (Graf) was taking a lot of weight off of our shoulders, and after he got busy with his own projects, we kept on inviting other people to help us to run this place. Nazlı Gürlek, Filiz Avunduk and Özge Ersoy did this job afterwards, we don’t know who is going to be the next.

How do you decide who to invite as a guest director?

Volkan: It just happens. We only care that the guest director is young and has a promising career.

Nancy: And we also know that not everyone is willing to accept this because it is a unpaid work. Even though they don’t have to spend the whole week here, they have to conduct the meetings and spend some time on the project.

In the past, many art initiatives were closed down because it sucks up the time needed for founding artists’ own practice. Do you feel the same way?

Volkan: Yes, sometimes it seems hard on us. Even though we usually have a guest director, we want to go easy on him/her. That’s why if we don’t have any projects to offer, we close 5533 temporarily. However, like you mentioned even if we are not present, the projects continue with the help of the guest director. 5533 is capable of acting independent from us.  

When I read the blog your guest directors wrote, I noticed that they usually talk about the challenges they had met and the urge to try something new. Do you discuss these themes frequently with them?

Volkan: Those difficulties arise from the nature of the projects. For example Özge (Ersoy) wanted the ask such questions as ‘What is an art initiative?’, ‘Is 5533 an art initiative?’, ‘If yes, what does make it an art initiative?’. Later we came together with Özge Ersoy, Özden Demir, Ali Taptık and Merve Ünsal and made a video for Moving Image. In the video, we write the questions we asked over the years on this very blackboard here and after a point the writings turn into nothing other than meaningless scratches.

Nancy: Artists also ask questions without hoping to get an answer. We don’t think we will find the answers anyway.

Volkan: And lots of the answers we gave, changed over the course of time.

What did change through these years? You are here as 5533 for a very long time…

Nancy: There used to be almost 20 art initiatives in Istanbul. We even held a mini-fair for them here. However after 2010, it went less and less.

Volkan: Of course, the rents went up and finding financial support is really difficult. I only know that SAHA Foundation as funding art initiatives, and that’s only to keep them going.

In previous interviews, most people told me that one of the most common problem an art initiative face is the lack of funds... 

Nancy: That’s why we wanted to work in a space that we own. Paying rent always demands for funds and it would be an obstacle for our freedom.

On your blog there was also an entry about making 5533 more publicized. What kind of activities do you do to make people hear about you more? For example, do you participate in art fairs?

Nancy: Last year, we participated in Art International’s art initiatives section, just because our previous guest director at the time, Özge Ersoy, was co-curating it. Though we don’t want to attend fairs, we can’t say no. Last year, we showed a video work and the year before that we took the plastic carpet of off 5533’ floor and showed it there. We had been using it for six years, and we signed the names of the exhibitions we held on the stains. Than we left it there.

Some art initiatives I interviewed also told me that if they can exist in the fair setting as themselves, it is not a problem to attend. Does the same thing apply to you as well?

Volkan: Yes, fairs are one of the most commercial structures in the art world and this fact doesn’t change when you participate as an art initiative. Sometimes people want to buy the works we show, and we share the contact of the artist and they take it from there.

I don’t know how you are going to answer this question because of your organic and ever-evolving structure, but I’m going to ask anyway. What is going to happen next?

Volkan: Nowadays we are working on building an internet radio named as ‘Central Radio’, as a reference to the old Istanbul Central Radio. We already started recording some material and we are going to announce an open call for DJs as well. Everyone is welcomed to use the equipment and do their own radio show.

Nancy: We don’t even know what we are going to do the next month (laughing). Our main aim is to archive the programs we did here and SAHA will support us on this matter as well. From now on, 5533 will be up in the air!